Origin of Okinawan Weapos-Chapter 1, Bo

[sirdarksol]

The majority of Okinawan weapons serve (or used to serve) a different, more mundane purpose prior to their adoption as implements of war.
We'll start out with the most simple of weapons, the bo. The full title of the weapon that most people call bo is rokushaku bo. Roku means six. Shaku is a unit of measurement that is amazingly close to a foot. Bo refers to a length of wood or a stick. Thus, the weapon is given the very descriptive name of six foot stick.
There are several reasons that the staff, whatever name it is given, is the most common weapon, particularly among peasants, across the world.
First of all, it has plenty of mundane uses. It can be a walking/climbing aid. It can be used as a yoke to carry loads across the shoulders. It can be used as a lever, a reaching stick (to knock an apple off of a high branch, for example), and any number of things that might come up in day to day life.
Second, it offers reach and leverage, which allow a person to attack from outside of the range of many swords, and deal much greater impact with those attacks than could be made with a shorter weapon.
Third, how difficult is it to find a six foot stick? They're everywhere.

In Okinawa, the bo's use was very similar to European quarterstaves. It was a walking aid, a yoke, and anything else a farmer might need it for in his daily life.
The beginning of the bo's use as a weapon probably occurred long before a structured art was built around it. If a person is attacked while holding a stick, that person's response usually is to use the stick as defense.
The development of bojutsu as a martial art, however, probably began with a Chinese monk. This is an area of contention, partly because the Japanese and the Chinese don't get along very well now, and partly because there just isn't enough concrete information.
Still, it seems likely that there was some sort of instruction from the Chinese. There are similarities between the two arts, and bojutsu sprang up quickly enough that it seems unlikely to be a spontaneous art.
As with so many other things, however, the Okinawans quickly made the art their own. Attacks became more direct, and utilized the same movements as many of the strikes in karate.